MGMT - Congratulations

It seems every summer of my adult years has an album that sort of encapsulates the whole season. It makes its way into every party and onto every iPod playlist with infectious songs that cause everyone to go "Who is this? Why don't I know about this?". In 2007, that album for me was MGMT's Oracular Spectacular (and if you want to keep track St Elsewhere was Summer 2006, 2008 was Daft Punk's Alive 2007, and this past summer was Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix which I wrote about previously, here). I could get specific about Oracular Spectacular, but let's just say it's an album that makes you feel nice.

2010's early onset of warm weather has also brought the new album of the season, and it seems that MGMT have regained their summer throne (which I assume looks a lot like a lifeguard high chair). I like it when bands realize that the best follow-up albums sound nothing like the first. This record definitely has more of a live feel than Oracular, and a big part of that is the drums. I will argue this until my death, but raw sounding drums that are well played will always make a record sound better than cool parts loaded with tons of effects. they worked for The Flaming Lips, they made In Utero sound awesome and they helped Wilco gain respect. Raw drums played well. Remember that.

When MGMT recorded their first album, it was basically the brainchild of two people, Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden (which, to me, sound like fake names I would give interrogators if I was drunk and British). For Congratulations, they brought their live band into the studio with them, drummer Will Berman shared percussion duties with VanWyngarden, which seems to have been a fantastic idea. What I hear in Congratulations, is a band who already knew their way around a studio re-discovering themselves as a live band and instead of going the route of the big budget big sound sophomore album, they stripped the songs down to their core, brought in some friends, set up in a room, snapped on the microphones and just played.

The drumming on the first album sounded like it was from the future and the drumming on this album sounds like it wasn't influenced by any record that came out after 1981. It goes from hypnotic kraut-rock beats like the last few minutes of Siberian Breaks, to garage-y psych drums on Brian Eno (which has huge snare and tom rolls scattered throughout) to sort of a southern rock sway and swagger on Congratulations. Songs that are fast enough to dance too are slow enough to walk to, which makes it perfect for walking around outside or going apeshit on someone else's coffee table. That's a fine line.

I can't wait to listen to this, sit outside, drink beer and barbecue.